How good is your cell phone

[Shelby Griggs]

Anybody want an older car phone?

All you guys that like the older phones, I have an older Motorola car phone, not a bag phone, but one that mounts in the car. It would probably only work with AT&T, it is analog + digital, albeit pre PCS digital.



It has been collecting dust in my garage for about 3 years. FREE to anybody that wants it, you pay shipping.



I currently have a Nokia 8260 on AT&T and an 8290 on Voicestream. I am sold on the Nokia hardware, and the service is not bad on either carrier. I just got the Voicestream, a lot of bang for the buck, I think you do "Get More!" I kept the AT&T plan for the analog fall back in remote areas. Out here in the NW, if you can't get AT&T analog, then you probably aren't going to get any carrier. I don't think 100% coverage in rural areas is a realistic expectation.



Shelby

 

[JHansen]

sdalton-I have the V60 which I believe is the predecessor to the V66-although the V60 is less than a year old (isn't the march of technology a wonderful thing? ) Mine has been a pretty good little phone-battery sucker on analog but on digital it seems like it runs forever-although I did upgrade to the larger battery to stretch times out even farther. Better service on analog than an old Startac-and at least as good digital service as a Timeport. Tough too-I squashed it between my right hip and a concrete sidewalk one morning accidentally (too much fun the night before I guess) and I weigh 230... ... few scratches on the face were the only result!



Having said that, I still prefer my fixed-mount Motorola for the hands-free and general quality of service-although I have noticed a dropoff in the last few months. Would not surprise me if Telus is degrading analog service to force us over to digital. When that phone's plan runs out I will be seriously searching for a fixed-mount Motorola that runs analog and digital..... Shelby, if you still have that phone would you drop me a PM? If nothing else to discuss model # etc. so I can see if they make a model that will be Telus-compatible... ... .



Jason

 

[Wayno]

Well I have Sprint and I have been with them for three years, but this year has not been as good as the first two. I have been having problems finding signals in areas that I have never had before. I have been thinking about changing to Cingular or Voicestream?????????????/

 

[wcjp]

In the PNW Voicestream sucks. I used to call it VoiceScream. They're now T-Mobile. I had lots of minutes I couldn't use. The network was unreachable for long periods of time. This despite have a full or near full antenna strength. I've also used Nextel, Sprint, Qwest, and Verizon. I've also heard the Motorola Startac and Verizon was the best combo available. Sprint wasn't much better than Voicestream. That was three years ago, it might've changed by now. Nextel was only good along the freeway. Qwest is ok but has it's problem spots. Of the companies I've tried locally Verizon is the best. When I'm out Jeepin' it's easy to tell who has Verizon. We're the only ones with service. The majority of phones I've used has been Nokia.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

I just replaced my Nokia phone with a Kyocera 2135 (tri-mode) last week. The Nokia was one of the worst phones I've ever had - the people I called said it sounded horrible, the Kyocera sounds great they say. The Kyocera also has much better range than the Nokia. I use Alltel for my provider here in Michigan (used to be Century Tel) and have almost never had a problem getting a signal. I am on a plan that has free nationwide roaming and here at my house I am using a Verizon tower for a digital signal (Alltel's tower is analog only out here) and there's no fees to use it at all. I can even use my new phone in the basement of my house which I haven't been able to do on any other phone I've had (and I've had cell phones for about 8 years and use it over 1000 minutes a month). I'm very impressed with this phone, as long as I'm on digital (which I have been everywhere I've gone so far) I get over 200 minutes of talk time out of it and it only takes 2 hours to charge.

 

[JeffreyHahn]

cell phone

Work in an industrial park close to M14 and I275 in Plymouth, MI.

Had Sprint with a Startac phone. Signal was weak but usable. Starting in Aug 02 calls started going directly to voicemail. Thought it was phone and replaced with a Samsung a460. Went through 4 phones in 3 weeks. Phone was POS. Sprint technicians said screen on some of the a460s would explode. Still couldn't get signal. The area I work in is a skunk works for a major auto man. The engineers here w/Sprint were losing calls, also. I started a campaign with Sprint and all I got in 15 letters was it was phone or they will place a trouble report for the techs in the area. Mid Sept. I, along with 7 engineers, switched to Verizon and the Motorola V60-i. We all sent letters to Sprint explaining why we were leaving-lack of service. Maybe Sprint should quit expanding their network and maintain what they already have.

 

[sdalton]

Well, I broke down and got the upgrade for the Motorola V66. It cost me $70 through Voicestream(T-Mobile) because of the time I have been with them. They tried to say it would cost $130 but I told them Sprint might need another customer, and they then said $70. It is a very good phone. Not as long of battery life as the Nokia, but this one fits in my shirt pocket. Very good reception.

 

[DieselDoghouse]

Got a Samsung on Sprint with the hands-free unit installed. That really is the only part of the service I like. Safe, voice-activated visor mike dialing (uhh, program it with the ENGINE running). As for coverage: the guy said "you'll never hear" I thought he said "Free and Clear"ÉI will be adding a digital signal amp to the Doghouse next month - boosts signal up to 500X. You gottaz get one that's PCS capable ($$) Digitalantenna has one once I can find a distributor. JDTeck in FL WILL have one (cheaper) not yet avail. BTW - did you know that cedar shingle siding is an effective cell phone shield?? Found it on the web!! Gotta go now, outside, must make phonecall!!!

 

[The patriot]

I got another phone, and a different plan.

The phone is a Nokia 6340i. It is supposed to pick up a sattelite if no coverage is available. I dont know if the salesman was blowing smoke up my..... well you know.

I've only tried it in my house a few times (a bad cell coverage area) and I was told that it sounded much better than before with the old phone.

It has "GAIT" technology.

The plan gives me a few less minutes than the old plan, but I now have the whole nation as my "home area". I like this. It's also about $8. 00 a month cheaper than my old plan.

I travel a bit on my time off, and I almost always waited until I was in NJ before making calls. I still however got picked up by the out of state cell tower. Whenever I called it in, they removed it from my bill, but this was still a PITA.

Eric

 

[Amianthus]

I have a Nextel i90c. I was one of the first in my area to have Nextel service. How do I like it? Half the time I love it, the other half I could put them through a wall. The customer service is mediocre. When the phone is in its network, it works pretty well. Lots of features and good connections. Get outta the network and you're SOL. I knew that coverage is limited when I signed up, so that's no surprise. I got it because I like the nation-wide roaming, internet, email, text messaging, and two-way feature. I like it, but don't recommend it for everyone.



My wife has an Ericcsson T-18 (tri-mode) with service from US Cellular. Nothing but good things to say. Great customer service. Good contract plans. Excellent coverage. The only downside is roaming. But we primarily use her phone around here for long distance and in places where my phone won't work.



We've had several Cellular companies. Cellular 2000, GTE Mobilenet, Honolulu Cellular, Century Cellunet (Alltel) don't ever get service from these aholes, Nextel, and US Cellular. We've had cellular service for the last 11 years with one company or another. The best we had was GTE Mobilenet with US Cellular a very close second. The worst by far was Century Cellunet (Alltel). Avoid them like the plague.

 

[Arcticat]

I think alot of the time, problems with reception have alot more to do with the phone than the provider. My new Motorla T720 makes such better calls than my Kyocera 2135 did when roaming on an analog network, it's amazing. When there is a digital signal to be found, they perform about the same however. This is with the same Verizon service on both. Another thing to consider is that single piece phones will never have as low background noise as a flip phone such as a Startac, because the curved shape of a flipphone gets the reciever and earpiece closer to your mouth and ear.



I tried Sprint PCS and was disappointed. I found that the sound quality was no better than Verizon Digital. And roaming is not included in your monthly allowance like VZW, which gets real expensive if you should venture outside their very limited service area. If they allowed roaming for free they would be much more competitive. They are expanding very aggresively in upstate NY and central VT though, so in another year I may give them another try.

 

[DennyDay]

Miss Texas City?

How can you miss Texas City? All you have to do is watch for the yellow smoke cloud from Amoco, or get a sniff of Malone!



DennyOo.

 

[Wayno]

Get a sniff of Malone???? Malone has been shut down for quiet a few years now . Went bankrupt. If I heard right on the fed's hazardous waste site clean up list

 

[Andy Perreault]

I have Sprint, and the service sucks. My "contract" ended at the beginning of December, so now I am free from it. I can understand losing a signal while driving, but how on earth can I have a perfectly strong signal while PARKED in a parking lot in the city, and suddenly -beep- I'm booted off!

Where I live, I lose my signal about 1/4 mile from home. That's understandable, it's a rural area. But, my sister was visiting here, and she has Cingular. Her phone worked just fine at my house. Needless to say, I will be switching to Cingular.

Another thing I don't like about Sprint is their false advertising. I once got a flyer in the mail that bragged about how they have 100% digital service on the I-5 corridor from Stockton to the Grapevine in California. Bull-poop! A few weeks later, I drove that stretch of I-5, and I didn't have any signal at all!

Andy

 

[JConley]

I have had AT&T, Sprint, and now Verison. Verizon has the worst call quality of them all. Sprint had the worst coverage of them all, and AT&T had the worst calling plans.



Even though the call quality stinks with the Verizon, I am probably going to keep it since I travel a lot, and I need the coverage.



MY work phone uses AT&T, so I use it as much as possible but it will only work on GSM networks. I just got this phone last week for work, and it is REALLY cool.



SX56 Pocket PC Phone

 

[scbrown]

Nextel i90c here, piece of crap !!!

Nearly useless in the metro Detroit area.

I can make a call from Honalulu Hawaii but not from home (about 15 miles north of Detroit) Customer service says they are putting up new towers all the time. I have been told this for the last two years. I sure would like to know where they are putting these towers at? Cingular is no better in my area.

When the thing works the two way sure saves me alot of money answering questions from employees.

 

[fest3er]

Originally posted by scbrown
Nextel i90c here, piece of crap !!!
Nearly useless in the metro Detroit area.
I can make a call from Honalulu Hawaii but not from home (about 15 miles north of Detroit) Customer service says they are putting up new towers all the time. I have been told this for the last two years. I sure would like to know where they are putting these towers at? Cingular is no better in my area.
When the thing works the two way sure saves me alot of money answering questions from employees.

I had CellOne in No. IL, and kept it after I moved down here to VA, where they have no service. I was on the national plan, so there were no roaming charges.

When the contract finally ran out, I checked *every* provider here in the Roanoke valley. SunCom/AT&T looked nice, but have no service up here in Mason Cove. Verizon might have been a choice, but they have no service here, either. I considered NTelos, but *they* don't have service here. USSprint only services the main highways; get away from urban areas and highways, and you won't find much Sprint service at all.

*Only* USCellular has a tower up here. *Only* USCellular has digital service up here. Yup. I went with USC. National plan, no roaming fees. I put the phone in digital-only mode so the battery will last a few days whilst on the road. If I need to make a call and there's no digital, I'll switch it to analog.

As to technologies, expect a *lot* more GSM to appear. AT&T and Cingular are switching their entire networks to GSM (at 1900 MHz; I haven't heard much of anything about GSM being implemented at 800 MHz. . US-TDMA (IS-54 and IS-136) is disappearing. 800 MHz AMPS (analog) will still be around for years to come, because the providers just don't see the need to spend money in the boonies. CDMA is still expanding, but with AT&T and Cingular converting, CDMA will be nearly on par with GSM.

In 10 years, you may start to see a common world-wide standard for wireless switched telephony being rolled out. But, before that happens, expect to see more and more voice over IP (VoIP - packet-switched voice) showing up. In 20 years' time, I expect to see most domestic phone service converted to packet-switched. The Telcos have some rough years ahead of them.

Who make the best cell phone? No one, really. Go look at as many models as you can, and pick the one that sounds best and has the features you want. All cell phones have software bugs. They can all lock up, they can all have audio problems, they can all reset for no apparent reason.

Fest3er